Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail

[The following is an excerpt from Beth El BLC'S Lesson 30, Weekly Post: Commentary on James 5]

We have made it, my friends. Over the last ten weeks (plus a couple of breaks for holiday posts), we have with this lesson completed our Book Study Series for James. It is my hope you have derived as much from this study as I have. We have seen consistency throughout: an emphasis in living faith through action and restraint instead of the empty or false religion of most, who feel they are doing their part by attending weekly service (or even reading this weekly post) and checking God at the door on their way out. You cannot be a believer in God and have a filthy mouth, you cannot claim to have faith and favor the rich while shunning the poor. You cannot claim to both love God and hate your fellow brother, regardless of differences in religion, education, economy, race, culture, politics or patriotism (the ills that to this day most often divide us). “Faith without works is dead.” What’s more I will take this up a notch further. Since the lessons of James have personally sunk in to me, I have literally begun to think of everyone as a brother or sister. Sometimes I see older brothers and sisters, at times younger ones and often those of my own age. It does take some getting used to, but it is a wonderful way to view the world. If you are in line for something and find yourself growing impatient with the person ahead of you that is taking too long, your reaction to them will vary greatly (for the better) if you think, “this is my little sister here, trying my patience,” as opposed to the uninstructed way of thinking that wants to shout, “what’s this lady’s problem! Doesn’t she see that she’s holding up the line?” Try it. Just this minor adjustment in itself will increase your levels of peace and happiness tenfold.

You are not asked to consort with sinners, you are asked to withhold from becoming one yourself by judging in the pride of callous prejudice. For our judge is One, and with the measure you mete out unto others, it shall be meted out unto you. I used to fall into this trap often, that of judging others. Smart and religious people are exceptionally vulnerable to this. But it also proves our undoing and the greatest trap (if we do not detect it in time and repent in truth and deed). In this respect false contrition is no good and only exacerbates the situation, adding sin to sin. I am curious as to what you read in the biblical chapters when they are published on their own; what type of revelations and realizations come to you, and am interested in how you then respond the following week to my own commentary. Do I bring some things to light you had not thought about? Do I contradict the meaning of a passage as to how you yourself interpreted it without help? I wonder if it is helpful, if you prefer the plain text of scripture or if you look forward to the commentary the following week. Perhaps (and this would be the best case scenario) you get the most from the combination of both. If anyone out there reads this and wants to let me know how they feel, please do so by going to our website https://cromwellblack.wixsite.com/bethelblc and clicking on the tab that says “get in” to message us, or for our current email address.

1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you. - James 5

“You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter,” (James 5:5). For me the irony and cleverness of this line is nearly without equal in all the bible, I mean, wow. The imagery in this first paragraph of the last chapter is downright terrifying, and once more his target (collectively speaking) is “the rich.” In this Series I have found myself apologizing quite a bit on behalf of James and his seeming prejudice against the rich, and this time is no different. Apologetics (as I have recently been made aware) is actually an entire branch of scholarly study that takes that deferential name because it seeks to “apologetically assert and affirm the truth and validity of Scripture.” In a way it means to say, “I’m sorry to say this guys, but the bible (the whole, completed bible) is 100% true. I am sorry.” - hence, Apologetics. So what is the deal with James’ unrelenting condemnation of the rich? Are all wealthy people truly that rotten to the core? And if not, why is the bible allowed to smear and defame them so? Is this fair? Have we spotted a flaw in, “the infallible record of God?” Or a more disquieting possibility; does the bible make room for the individual commentary and opinion of its contributors, whether or not God himself directly authorizes, defends and backs that opinion? What then? That is a terrifying prospect and automatically the entire Scripture must be questioned and brought under scrutiny: is any of it God’s word? Or is it no better than a mess of individual human opinions and biases heralded as heavenly commandments? Is it all nothing more than the world’s greatest hack job and act of mass manipulation? Assuredly, this is precisely the type of stinging indictment that most atheists, scoffers and secular unbelievers make. This more or less sums up their entire attack line against the bible. So the answer must come back in bold typeface, “NO, the bible is not human opinion and does in fact state the spoken word of God.” So I have refused to let myself off the hook easily and must thereby confront the facts. God is directly saying, brace yourselves “you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days,” (James 5:1-3). We have no place to escape and must face this death sentence stoically and swallow down its bitter message, though it stirs up all our insides and causes us to vomit. I happen to know some wealthy people, very wealthy people (and should actually say that I have wealth in my family - though I myself have been spared this “misfortune”). How do I reconcile this hellish indictment from James with the knowledge that my wealthy family members are actually good, peace-loving and (relatively) God-fearing people? Are wealth and faith mutually exclusive? And if not, is the bible lying? It should be here noted, that our patriarch Abraham was made fabulously rich by none other than God himself (Genesis 13:2, 14:23), and king Solomon collected 666 talents of gold in yearly tribute alone (1 Kings 10:14). Certainly God has the power (and is in the occasional practice) of making His own servants rich, once He has first tried them and put them through the refiner’s fire of poverty. And even then, He retains ultimate veto power to revoke and crush that wealth in an instant, should said servant begin to secretly idolize his earthly blessings and material prosperity above their Source. Now that is clear: if it was not God himself who enriched this person because he or she never idolized gold and silver in the first place, and furthermore once it was acquired managed not to pollute their heart or corrupt their desire, but instead said wealth and riches were acquired through cunning, oppression, exploitation, usury, legerdemain, insider trading, backroom dealing and/or bribery in spite of God (whether or not the assets are acquired “by legal means” in the eyes of the State), then all the curses in this book of James apply irrevocably. If wealth and riches are your gods, then all the curses and condemnation detailed in this book (and more besides these, delineated in other books of the bible) apply to you. This is regardless of how nice or decent a person you are outwardly, irrespective of your superficial veil of religiosity, or even of how much you write off your annual taxes byway of “charitable contributions.” There is no buying your stairway to heaven, and if God knows that he does not enjoy a seat on the throne of your heart because that place is already occupied by idols and images cast in bronze, silver and gold, then there is no defrauding the Eternal Judge of all mankind, and your life’s work will mete out its corresponding eternal reward for idolatry (which is the second death, from which there is no return). “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7). And by this explanation I have endeavoured, once and for all, to put the matter to rest for good regarding wealth that is from the Lord and is gifted because of pureness of heart, and the kind that man begets for himself to his own detriment and eternal damnation. Thus we reconcile the word of Scripture as divinely ordained by God and verify that it in no wise contradicts or stands in opposition to itself.